Method for wagering on multiple sporting events

ABSTRACT

A method for wagering and accepting wagers on multiple sporting events, each such sporting event involving two teams and a predetermined point spread associated therewith used in determining whether a wager made on each sporting event is won. This wagering method includes (A) presenting a plurality of sporting events upon which wagers may be made; (B) predetermining a payout schedule based upon selecting and wagering on a group of at least three winning teams based upon total points scored plus the point spread; (C) allowing a bettor to select and place a bet upon at least three winning teams of the sporting events; (D) awarding to each bettor that correctly selects all winning teams selected for the wager a payout determined from the payout schedule.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not applicable

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable

INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC

Not applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to methods of playing games, and moreparticularly to a gaming method for presenting a plurality of sportsevents to be played and allowing wagers to be placed on at least aportion (a group) of the plurality of those sporting events, a winningbet whether all of the chosen teams of each sporting event win by anamount at least equal to the point spread pre-established before eachsporting game is played and the wager is placed.

2. Description of Related Art

Many devices and methods have been devised which facilitate the placingof wagers against the outcome of two-team sporting events. One suchmethod of playing a game is disclosed by Feinberg in U.S. Pat. No.5,851,010. Feinberg teaches therein a method of playing a game utilizinga gaming device which generates outcomes for gaming decisions. Chancesare sold to players after which the gaming device is used to generate aseries of decisions from the first and second outcomes. The correctnumber of decisions is tracked and a payout is made of a predeterminedamount and based upon a predetermined number of correct decisions made.

In U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,270, Maksymec teaches another method of effectingmultiple wagers on a sports event wherein the establishment sets acenter point on a continuum of point spreads. A player then places a betthat the actual outcome of the sports event will lie along the first orsecond set of results to win a predetermined payout.

Friedman, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,543 teaches another method of wageringon the combined point spread from multiple contests, this methodspecifically facilitated by having Internet access to a mainframesystem. In the method of either accepting wagers or wagering on theoutcome of multiples of a sporting event involving two teams, thewagering winner being dependent upon a point spread pre-establishedbefore the event is held, involves selecting a winning team upon whichto wager, summing the point spreads associated with the selected teamsto define a combined point spread wager, wagering on that point spreadand winning if the combination of point differentials associated withall of the selected teams covers the combined point spread.

The present invention provides a method of wagering on selected multiplesports events, each involving two teams, from a plurality of sportsevents to be held during a specific time period on particular days orweekends. The bettor makes selections from a minimum group size of theplurality (preferably three) of sporting events upon which wagers may beplaced, wagering on the selected winning teams having been advisedbefore placing bets as to the point spread associated with each sportsevent. A winning bet must include a correct selection of all of theteams selected in order to win a predetermined payout. The payout isbased upon the total number of teams selected. A consolation payout isalso provided where a larger number of wagers placed on teams(preferably at least nine) selected correctly is only in error by nomore than one score. Another embodiment of the invention is in the formof a game where multiple players compete in the same fashion as above inmaking selections, the winning player determined based upon the highestnumber of points scored for winning team selections. In this embodiment,multiple sheets may be used wherein different numbers of teams ofsporting events are selected, again the object of the game to end upwith the highest number of total points scored by winning teamsselected.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention is directed to a method for wagering and accepting wagerson multiple sporting events, each such sporting event involving twoteams and a predetermined point spread associated therewith used indetermining whether selections for the wager made on each sporting eventis correct. This wagering method includes presenting a plurality ofsporting events upon which wagers may be made, predetermining a payoutschedule based upon selecting and wagering on a group of at least threewinning teams based upon (a) total points scored by each team plus thepoint spread, (b) total points scored by both teams allowing a bettor toselect and place a bet upon at least three winning teams of the sportingevents or over and under lines or combinations thereof, and awarding toeach bettor that correctly selects all winning teams selected for thewager a payout determined from the payout schedule.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a method ofaccepting wagers and placing bets on multiple sporting events involvingtwo teams and a predetermined point spread associated therewith.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a method of acceptingwagers and placing bets of money or points on multiple sporting eventseach including two teams, the wager made and won based upon theselection of at least three winning teams in an array of sports eventspresented on any given day or weekend during a playing season.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a method of playinga game where players compete to make the highest number of total pointsbased upon selecting winning teams chosen from game playing cardsprepared in accordance with this invention.

In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparenthereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with referenceto the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

FIG. 1 is a display of a typical betting presentation from which abettor or player may select and make wagers.

FIG. 2 is a preestablished payout schedule for winning bets or gameselections made on sports events teams as shown, for example, in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings, the presentation of a plurality ofsporting events upon which to wager is shown in FIG. 1 generally atnumeral 10. This wager presentation 10 may be in the form of a printedcard or accessible by a local PC on the Internet at a central computersite of the person or entity orchestrating the wager presentation 10.Note that this invention may be applied and used with respect to allforms of two-team sports contests and on any given day.

The wager presentation 10 includes a designation in the preferredembodiment of college football contests at 12 and professional footballcontests at 14, each of which are occurring on a specific date 16 and18, respectively, during a given weekend time period. Obviously, thepresentation of sporting events of two sports teams in columns 20 and 22and the wagering thereon has to be made prior to the playing of each ofthe contests.

In each of the sports events presentations at 12 and 14, a winning teamfavorite in column 20 and an underdog in columns 22 are presented at 26and 28, respectively. A predetermined point spread in column 24 is alsoprovided for each of the sporting events. This point spread for eachsporting event is preestablished by independent means.

A bettor in utilizing the presentation 10 simply selects a plurality ofpreferably at least three teams such as at A, B, and C which the bettorbelieves will win and will win by sufficient points to cover the pointspread in column 24. For convenience, a betting box 34 is also providedas part of the corresponding presentation 10 so that the winning teamsmay be easily selected or marked such as at letters D, E, and F.

As part of the selections provided in the presentation 10 with respectto the professional football sports events 14, a bettor may also bet onthe total points scored by both teams such as at 30 or 32. In thisexample, a bet on number seventeen could be won if the contest betweenthe 49er's and the Chiefs did not produce total points scored by bothteams of up to 36 points or under 37 points. A separate bet of aseparate wager may also be placed as at 32 in number 18 that at least 39combined points will be scored during that sports event. In the exampleshown in FIG. 1, a total of 10 separate winning/total points scoredselections comprising a group of selections have been wagered upon.These selections are circled or marked in the betting array 34.

Continuing this example, a total of nine (9) of the ten (10) selectionsof the group of selections turned out to be correct or winners. That isto say that the selection at numbers 3, 12, 13, 15, 24, 31, 35, 46, and56 were all correctly selected. However, the selection of number 60betting on the Chargers to win over the Broncos by at least ten pointswas incorrect and either the Broncos won or the point spread was notmet, i.e. the Chargers may have won but by less than ten points over theBroncos.

Continuing the example in FIG. 2, a predetermined payout schedule at 42is there shown displaying the payout in column 48 corresponding to thenumber of winning selections in column 46. As noted, at least threeselections of a bet group would have to have won to qualify for anywinning payout as shown in column 48. For example, had the group ofwinning selections totaled nine (9) at G were winners, a payout of 150:1would have been made to this winning bettor.

However, in the example shown in FIG. 1, only nine (9) of the ten (10)selections of the group of ten selections were winners. Thepredetermined payout schedule 40 alternately includes a consolationprize at 44 in which at least ten selections were wagered upon formingthe group of this example bet, nine (9) of which selections were corrector winners. Thus, in the preferred embodiment, the consolation prizesand the number of selections which qualify at 50 have a reduced payoutat column 52. In the example H from FIG. 1 as reflected from FIG. 1,nine (9) out of ten (10) selections were correct providing a consolationpayout of 15:1.

An alternate embodiment of the invention involves multiple game playerseach of which is provided with one or more printed play cards as showntypically in FIG. 1. Correct selections of teams and total points scoredby teams in predetermined numbers of sporting events determines the gamewinner. The game winner will be the player who is awarded the greatestnumber of game points based upon correct winning team and/or maximumpoints scored by a team correctly selected.

While the instant invention has been shown and described herein in whatare conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it isrecognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of theinvention, which is therefore not to be limited to the details disclosedherein, but is to be afforded the full scope of the claims so as toembrace any and all equivalent apparatus and articles.

1. A method for accepting wagers on multiple sporting events, each such sporting event involving two teams and a predetermined point spread associated therewith used in determining whether a wager made on each sporting event is won, comprising the steps of: A. presenting a plurality of sporting events upon which wagers may be made, the outcomes of each sporting event determined by points scored by each team and the predetermined point spread associated therewith; B. predetermining a payout schedule based upon selecting and wagering on a winning team of at least three of said plurality of sporting events based upon total points scored and the predetermined point spread; C. allowing a bettor to select and place a bet upon winning teams from a group of three or more of said plurality of sporting events; D. awarding to each bettor that correctly selects the winning team of each of the group of sporting events a payout determined from said payout schedule; E. retaining all wagers placed which did not correctly include a selection of all of the winning teams of the group:
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein: step C also includes allowing the bettor to also select and place a bet upon a maximum or a minimum total number of points scored during one or more of said sporting events in said group; step D also includes awarding to each bettor that also selects the correct maximum or minimum total number of points scored in each of the group of sporting events the payout determined from said payout schedule.
 3. The method of claim 1, following step E, further comprising the step of: F. winning a consolation wager at another predetermined payout based upon a larger number of sporting events greater than three if all but one of the teams selected in each of the sporting events wagered upon win by at least the corresponding point spread.
 4. A method of wagering on multiple sporting events, each said sporting event involving two competing teams and a predetermined point spread used in determining whether a wager made has won, comprising the steps of: A. selecting a team from each of three or more sporting events forming a group upon which to place a wager; B. wagering that each of the teams selected to be in the group will score at least as many points plus the number of points in the point spread during the corresponding sporting event as will the other team; C. winning the wager at a predetermined payout if all of the teams in the group selected in each of the sporting events wagered upon win by at least the corresponding point spread.
 5. The method of claim 4, following step C, further comprising the step of: D. winning a consolation wager at another predetermined payout based upon a predetermined larger number of sporting events greater than three if all but one of the teams selected in each of the sporting events wagered upon win by at least the corresponding point spread.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein: step B also includes wagering that a certain maximum or a certain minimum total number of points will be scored during one or more of said sporting events as being a part of the group; step C also includes winning the wager at the predetermined payout if all of the certain maximum or certain minimum total number of points scored in each of the group of sporting events, the payout pre-determined from said payout schedule.
 7. A method of playing a game of selecting winning teams from multiple sporting events, each such sporting event involving two teams and a predetermined point spread associated therewith used in determining whether each one of a plurality of players making selections on each sporting event has won gamepoints, comprising the steps of: A. presenting a play card which displays a plurality of sporting events from which winning selections may be made, the outcomes of each sporting event determined by points scored by each team and the predetermined point spread associated therewith; B. predetermining a gamepoint award schedule based upon selecting a winning team of at least three of said plurality of sporting events based upon total points scored and the predetermined point spread; C. allowing each player to select and mark selections on each play card of winning teams from a group of three or more of said plurality of sporting events; D. awarding to each player that correctly selects the winning team of each of the group of sporting events a gamepoint award determined from said award schedule. 